daan roosegaarde

waterlicht

source: dezeen

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has created a lighting installation that resembles the aurora borealis above a flood channel of the Netherlands’ River IJssel (+ slideshow).

Dubbed “the northern light of the Netherlands” by Studio Roosegaarde, the Waterlicht installation is designed to create the impression of a “virtual flood” and will debut this evening at the location near Westervoort.

The waving lines of light spread across 1.6 hectares bear a resemblance to the northern lights – the natural phenomenon created when charged particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere – when viewed from underneath.

From the surrounding dykes, the blue LEDs create the impression of water where it would be if the defences weren’t in place.

“Walking on the dyke the light lines are perceived as high water, once in the flood channel you find yourself in an underwater world,” said Roosegaarde.

“By adding – aside from the latest LED-technology – experience and perception, we create a virtual flood,” he added.

The LEDs are projected through lenses to focus the light. The sources are installed around the periphery of the area, positioned so the beams criss cross in midair as they slowly move up and down – powered by motors.

Waterlicht was created in partnership with Dutch water board Rhine and IJssel to raise awareness that large areas of the Netherlands lie below sea level.

“In Waterlicht people experience what the Netherlands would look like without its dykes,” said water board chairman Hein Pieper. “Awareness is crucial, because the Dutch (water)artworks need every day maintenance and our national water awareness is the foundation of that maintenance.”

Staff from the water board will be on site during these times to explain about the protective earthworks.

Roosegaarde has completed a variety of light-based installations in his home country. Last year, he illuminated a bike path with patterns based on Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night and turned an arc-shaped section of Amsterdam’s Centraal Station into a rainbow.
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source: gristorg
Oh, look: The Netherlands made another amazing contribution to the enviro-art world! After the debut of the “Starry Night” glow-in-the-dark bike lane and the in-the-works plans for the Wind Wheel, who here is actually surprised?

Daan Roosegaarde, the same artist who designed the gorgeous, Vincent van Gogh-inspired bike lane, pays homage to water infrastructure in his latest work, entitled “Waterlicht” (or “Waterlight”).

The art installment, which Roosegaarde calls a “virtual flood,” projects blue LED lights into the foggy skies to form a human-made aurora borealis over an acre of land along the IJssel river in Westervoort. The glowing fog is supposed to be representative of the land that would be drowned if the river’s levies collapsed. Designboom explains further:

when walking along the river’s dike (walls used to regulate water levels), luminous lines are perceived as high water. once in the flood channel, visitors become immersed in an underwater expanse. “in ‘waterlight’ people experience what the netherlands would look like without their dykes” says hein pieper, chairman of water board rhine and ijssel. “awareness is crucial, because the dutch (water) artworks need every day maintenance and our national water awareness is the foundation of that maintenance” pieper adds, referring to the OECD report published last year that concludes that dutch water works are unparalleled by any other country, but that awareness remains at low levels.

So basically, Roosegaarde’s latest work is an acre-wide thank-you to the country’s dedicated engineers. It’s as stunning as it is eerie. It might be a darker concept (figuratively, not literally) than the glow-in-the-dark bike lane, but damn are the Dutch full of bright ideas.
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source: brandnewdayru

Artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde (1979) explores the dawn of a new nature that is evolving from technological innovations. With projects ranging from fashion to architecture, he creates smart and social designs that instinctively interact with sound and movement. Roosegaarde’s remarkable works function as exploration of the dynamic relation between architecture, people, and technology.

His designs, such as Dune, Intimacy and Smart Highway, are tactile high-tech environments in which viewer and space become one. This connection, established between ideology and technology, results in what Roosegaarde calls ‘techno-poetry’.

Roosegaarde has won the INDEX: Award, Charlotte Köhler Award, TIM Award for Most Innovative Leader, two Dutch Design Awards, the Media Architecture Award, Design for Asia Award, Architizer A+ Special Mention, and China’s Most Successful Design Award. He has been the focus of exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the National Museum in Tokyo, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and various public spaces in Rotterdam and Hong Kong.